Hopes Of A Gibraltar Agreement Look To Be Fading

There have been long ongoing disputes between the United Kingdom and Spain about who should be allowed to control the borders of Gibraltar.

Negotiations have been ongoing for a prolonged period of time now, even before the Brexit agreement was passed through, and that subsequent deal has seemingly made things a whole load more difficult to discuss.

Gibraltar is indeed self-governed by itself but the territory is owned by the United Kingdom, meaning that any defence required would indeed be provided by the UK due to them having the overall control of the country.

Spain are obviously still very keen on Gibraltar being returned to them as it is part of their territory, but with the United Kingdom having captured and conquered it for a long period of time, they are seemingly fighting a losing battle.

Negotiations regarding the status of Gibraltar have been in limbo since the Brexit agreement was passed as it meant that the highly sought-after territory was no longer part of the European Union.

Spain not confident of a Gibraltar agreement

It appears that the key sticking point in any sort of negotiations is centred around the Gibraltar airport with the Spanish apparently demanding they can have control of it, something that is not even up for debate from the United Kingdom’s perspective.

Around 30,000 people are said to cross over the Gibraltar-Spain border every single day, with 15,000 of them said to be workers that reside in Cadiz – which is Spanish territory – which has forced Madrid and Gibraltar to try and loosen restrictions and border control.

The ball is in the UK’s court

The Spanish are said to believe that for any sort of agreement on free movement to be found between Gibraltar and Spain, the latter should have the freedom to control both the port and airport, which would require Spanish border agents to be deployed into Gibraltar.

The Spanish government believes that the ball is firmly in the UK’s court, but despite both parties not wanting to make it more difficult to cross the border, nobody either wants to give up any sort of territory, especially because the gateway it offers for Russia and China via ports that can halt and pass through large types of cargo.